Quick Update before I begin my backlog of Classpect Requests...
recently ive been looking into stuff regarding classpecting which has shifted my understanding and extent broadened my views and changed them etc etc more synonyms
anyways heres my take on classpects and the 12 jungian archetypes the pairing of class pairings/opposites wasnt intentional haha
oh and a sneak peek of whats to come soon in regards to my classpecting posts. maybe you can find me in the classpecting channel in the homestuck discord and find the extended sneak peek there..
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I made this cheat sheet to every Direct Mention of a class's active/passive alignment today.
In above, i've excluded everything like interpretation of characters' behaviors or of subtext, mentions of a character being active/passive and mentions of classes in ways that don't directly indicate activeness or passiveness. I do also want to keep a more general track of those subtexts and generic mentions of classes, so i'll make a list of those i find interesting.
I'll quote relevant parts where it's shorter and leave entire pages at the page reference. {And leave my personal comments in brackets like so}
Homestuck Proper:
Calliope on Rogues, Calliope on Princes, Aradia on Knights and Seers: p.4514, 4564, 4354 - {Mentioned above, but there's more i haven't quoted.}
Scratch on Seers: p.3832-3835 - {Too long to be quoted. It's unclear exactly to what extent Doc is talking about "A Seer", "A Seer of Mind" and "Terezi", respectively. }
Brain Ghost Dirk on Pages: p.4875 - "Pages have a lot of untapped potential. That's practically all there is to the class, actually. But when they eventually find it, look out."
Aranea on Sylphs: p.6553 - "I am a very powerful Sylph of Light. I have had millions of sweeps to hone my abilities. As one gifted with the aspect of light, certain outcomes will be prone to breaking in my favor. And as an ancient, highly experienced sylph, I wield an unprecedented ability to heal. A doomed timeline is really just an anatomical feature of a much larger organism. Like a capillary which comes to an end, because it has withered and died. I believe I will be able to heal this offshoot. And with enough time and patience, I am confident I can restore its vitality to such a great extent, it will effectively take over as the alpha timeline, thus reducing English to a lost footnote of paradox space." - {Obviously that last thing didn't happen, but she did end up making the Game-Over timeline take over as the alpha timeline. She just didn't understand the implications of that within Paradox-Space's framework.}
AH on... Clowns?: p.5484 - "It means crazy clowns just won't die for some reason. In adventures such as yours, they tend to linger long past their welcome. They linger and linger and linger, and just when you think you're totally fed up with their bullshit and you can't take another second of it, they just linger some more. And you never know what they're up to, and they're always scheming in the shadows, and it's quite possible that whatever master plan they're hatching just doesn't make the slightest bit of sense at all. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how stupid the clown's schemes are, or how sick of him everybody is. He just. Won't. Die." - {This is sort of my crackpot theory, but i believe this passage is a subtextual explanation of the Bard as a character archetype. Essentially a Jester staying in the shadow of its king. }
Beyond Canon:
Got nothing beyond what's in the sheet
Q&A:
On how Lunar Sway relates to Active/Passive Classes: p. - http://wheals.github.io/tumblr/tumblr.html#post25156009290q1 - {In the cheat sheet, but as before, there's more}
Book Commentary:
On Aradia and Vriska: Book 4, p.143 - "Aradia's extremely passive nature as a ghost makes her an easy target for this kind of overbearing attention." - {Hussie is commenting on aradia, not Maids, but the language is pretty strong}
The Jokerkind of the classpects, aka, in which I wildly speculate some more about Jakeās powers
Jokerkind is something of a broken Kind Abstratus to allocate to oneās Strife Specibus. Judging by what weāve seen for it, it seems to allow Gamzee to wield any weapon he pleases, just as the joker in a deck of cards can stand for any card you want it to. Maybe thereās also an element of āas long as he finds it funnyā that serves as a condition on what weapons he can use? I dunno, it was never really elaborated on.
But this post isnāt about Gamzee. Itās about Jake. So why am I drawing parallels between Gamzeeās abstratus and Jakeās title?
Because thereās a nonzero possibility Jake might have it in him to copy the classpect powers of others for his own use, just as jokerkind allows Gamzee to wield the weapons that rightfully belong to other kind abstrata. Itās only slightly baseless a thought, instead of being complete bullshit, only because we have (debatably) seen him do it before.
Remember Brain Ghost Dirk? That wonderful, strange, confusing Dirk-but-not-really, conscience and imaginary friend all at once? His status as a splinter of Dirk may be up for debate, but what isnāt is the fact that when Jake fully materialized him in the Game Over timeline, the guy had exactly the same soul-ripping powers one would expect from the real Dirk ā without Jake ever having seen them, without any reference for what they would look like.
Granted, an argument can be made that Brain Ghost Dirk being able to do that is a consequence of him being a Dirk splinter, though his ontological status is kind ofā¦ complicated. It is known that in the comic proper, Derse Dirk is able to materialize in Brain Ghost Dirkās place in the dream bubbles which definitely suggests some tangible connection between Dirk proper and the incorporeal version of him spawned (Athena-like) from Jakeās perception of him.
But even granted that, the real Dirk was nowhere near the scene at the time Jake manifested Brain Ghost Dirk with all the power of a Prince of Heart at his disposal. How in the heck does Jake know how those powers are supposed to be like? Is it because he knows Dirk so well as to be able to recreate him (albeit parsed through a Jake filter) in his mindās eye? What then of getting to know his other chums well enough to duplicate their powers eventually?
Iād have to file this under āplausible but unlikelyā, with a dash of āit would be so flipping neat to see him do something like this thoughā. Fun stuff to explore in fanwork, to brew up ideas about how it might look for him to wield the powers of other classpects when heās not straight up creating hoped-up doppelgangers of all his friends with theirs.
Heck maybe he could even combine it with his actual kind abstratus ā firearm magazines loaded with aspect-charged ammunition? A pair of revolvers like Calliopeās white magnum ā six-shooters with one round for each aspect in the chamber?
Perhaps when his hope-white aura manifests, it changes to that of a different aspect depending on which one heās jonesing to copy for the occasion?
Once again, his is a title that lends itself nicely to boundless speculation and possibilities to play around with.
So classpects are still, for the most part, kind of vague. The only confirmed pairs we have are the Master Classes of Lord/Muse, the Taker classes of Thief/Rogue, and the Destroyer classes of Prince/Bard.
Aside from that, we know Seer, Maid, and Heir are passive, and Witch and Knight are active. I've been thinking on the rest, and I'd like to propose my theory. Long post under the break.
First of all, I think we've got Seer figured wrong. It's not just "To Know". It's *To Guide/Instruct/Advise*. Seers are advisors, confidants, prognosticators. They accrue and distribute information to assist their fellow players. They've often been paired with Mages but I'd contend that their active equivalent is actually the Sylph, exemplified in the tendency of the class to *actively* Instruct others; the famous meddling of Kanaya and Aranea. In particular, I think Aranea exemplifies the actively meddlesome nature contrasting to a Seers passive advice. The Sylph seeks to enact their preferred vision.
So, where does that leave the Mage? I think it's the passive equivalent of the Witch. They have semantic similarity as magicians, and I think they're a pair built on the verb Change/Manipulate/Influence; my main evidence for this is how Sollux codes the virus Karkat runs which dooms the trolls.
Knight/Heir is my next suggested pairing. We know from dialogue in HS^2, commentary from Calliope, that the Knight is an active class; the verb Wield keeps popping up. I think Knights & Heirs both Wield, or Exploit, their Aspect, with John's retcon powers being the ultimate Wielding of Breath.
Finally, we come to my favorite, and most contentious pair. Page/Maid, the Servant classes. I think these exist in parallel to the Master classes, on the other end of the spectrum. Why do I say this, and why do I put Page as the active class? It starts with some strange similarities I noticed between Tavros and Caliborn's sessions. Namely, while Caliborn must acquire the Felt to navigate his null session, Tavros communes with the imps to assemble an army of his own. And then I thought, well, isn't it interesting that Jake created Brain Ghost Dirk to assist him? Could there be some connection there? They also all have a singular Helper essential to their development. Caliborn has Gamzee, Tavros has Vriska, Jake has Dirk. The interesting thing is that, with pages specifically, this helper seems to *hinder* them, while still genuinely wanting their success. My contention is that a Pages journey is about overcoming the aspirations of this Other to assert their own desires; and that the class is primarily concerned with a verb of creation, or becoming; that they begin to assert their will upon the world. I've paired them with the Maid as they're thematically related as words referring to Servants. I think there are likely interesting parallels between how maids in a sense become their Aspect and Aradia's existence being Weird in a way similar to Alt!Calliope, but I haven't looked into Maids as much yet so I don't have a lot of meat there.
Hello! As someone who loves having good study materials, I made a Beginnerās Guide to Homestuck Classpecting. Itās only 5 pages!
This guide has a focus on the class side of classpecting, covering foundational information including:
What the classes represent.
How the class system is structured.
How active and passive are defined.
It includes links to where all the information comes from. Most info is from the comic itself and nearly verbatim, while some info is from archived or now-deleted tweets from Andrew Hussie.
This isnāt a comprehensive guide, mostly itās a guide for people who either know nothing and need a good spot to jump in or for people who like having a lot of references organized in a quick to find place. Either way, I hope someone enjoys checking this out! āØ
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right. hereās something iāve been meaning to talk about for a while. the assignment of classpect titles.
before i start, i want to make something clear: iām not here to tell anyone how to identify. i am of the opinion that everyone knows themselves best. iām not here to tell anyone how to classpect: this is a wacky business filled to the brim with speculation. this is merely an account of my views and opinions.
the classpecting community at large, here on tumblr at least, is very concerned with oneās personality when assigning classpect titles. this approach also necessitates a focus on both class and aspect in tandem; making sense as one full concept, a one and done thing, rather than two components of a title. a title, not a name.
a prince of heart is one who destroys heart. therefore the prince must destroy heart. he cannot engage in destructive behaviour, fall into that classā archetypal pitfalls and climb its archetypal highs, and also have an arc concerned with identity, see the world in those terms at the same time. he must always be a [destroyer of heart].
it all ends up rather stereotypical; a prince destroys, therefore the prince is bad. a knight protects, therefore the knight is good.
i find it more constructive to look at classes as archetypes, because at their origin, this is what they are. patterns of behaviour one repeats again and again, falls back on when they are at their witsā end. this is where the narrative view of classpects comes in.
class represents the heroās internal processes. their values. a sort of concise list of their greatest faults and greatest strengths, like horoscopes in the newspaper. made to be generic. made for the hero to grow with and past them. it makes sense then why most prefer to classpect based on personality: it is easier to look at yourself as a list of traits than it is to look at yourself as a history, a narrative path youāve walked. actually, that brings me to a good metaphor: your class is your shoes. the trail you walk. your aspect is the scenery.
classpecting from a narrative angle requires a shift in perspective, and acknowledging one stark difference between the hero title of myself and say, the hero title of jake english. we are both hope players, yet one of us is a person. the other is a character. the title system in homestuck is made around characters. the game is deliberately set up to help its players grow, and in doing that sets them on a path loosely defined by their title. people are a bit more complicated.
seeing yourself as a character isnāt easy. itās almost impossible. characterhood is objective; personhood is not. in a story, we see its charactersā entire arcs in one line, we can clearly identify the inflection points in their stories and which themes repeat again and again. but as people our lives are ongoing; we are not afforded the same omnipotence, the ability to see time all at once.
class is incredibly hard to determine because of this. aspect is a bit easier. it is the themes that repeat again and again in our lives, a backdrop for all else to happen. it is a lens through which we see and understand the world. a light player might see their world as a story. a heart player might see the world as a tangle of identities rubbing up against and affecting each other. the possibilities are as endless as paradox space, which is to say not at all or quite a lot, depending on how you look at things. and how big you are in the scheme of them.
of course some measure of both narrative and personality classpecting must be employed for the most accurate outcome to be produced. one cannot look at the forestās reflection in the lake and claim to know the beasts within. one cannot build a house with only bricks. but a healthy harmony should be strived towards in order for the result to be most accurate.
if you would like to read some posts from people who know these things better than me, i recommend @classpect-navelgazing, particularly their masterpost, and @urcharactersclasspect, whose opinions i found very particularly eye-opening.
Wanted to do quick coverage of this fleeting idea in my head (fitting) since Iāve been back on a Homestuck Theory grind thanks to my brains inability to leave it alone. Soā¦here we go?
So with the release of the Extended Zodiac Aspect descriptions, Hope has been unequivocally linked with Imagination. Brain Ghost (BG) Dirk goes on to explain that two factors help make him responsible: Pages having a lot of untapped potential (thatās all the class is basically, is how he puts it), and that Hope is an especially potent combo (something something holy shit). The only other major relevant factor with this could be Dirk existing as a collection of splintered consciousness, and that the splinter exists more easily in Jakeās head than anyone elseās due to the aforementioned factors.
Now BG Dirk isnāt a fraymotif, but the combo nature of it initially makes me think of the tag-team moves we saw in Collide. In reality, it seems more to me like Jakeās imagination is just real fertile soil, not unlike Skaia. To deliver on my promise of brevity, thereās two major takeaways I got: Hope acts as a medium for making the imaginary into reality through belief and conviction - as a defined part of the skill set, and that Pages are largely undefined by design, making a long challenging journey towards power similarly to a pawn on the chessboard.
So the tl;dr of this idea before I take the time to make full on dissections is this: Between the Blank Page and Imagination bits being real cool for the sheer lack of detail they can inherently provide, it seems not only plausible to me but likely that Pages have this sort of flexibility inherently like how a Pawn can choose what piece it is to become when it reaches the other end of the board. Minor supporting evidence in the form of Jakeās two big power ups happening at the end of their respective āarcsā for lack of a better word (GAME OVER, the fight with Calibornās production), and being able to create an imaginary copy of his god tiered Heart player, make them real, and then the copy have access to the full range of Dirk powers that hadnāt been used by the real Dirk yet.
Bonus Section I guess?
- Hope Symbol is a core chess color
- at the end of their respective narratives (in this case GAME OVER Jake), both pages are able to amass pretty substantial armies of angels or ghosts (although I guess Aradia is able to have an army of doomed bots so grain of salt here ig).
- Knight also being a cool chess piece known for its unique tactical pattern.
Iāll probably come back to this idea in greater depth as I try to figure out the classes better because I canāt leave well enough alone. Hope someone else enjoys this pure string of chaos.
I got really invested in potential storylines around these two from reading some fanfics a little while back, and in the process of figuring out their characterization for my own take on that I ended up with Classpects I really like for both of them! Enjoy.
All Barriss ever wanted was to help people, to enjoy peace and see people living happy lives. Thrown into the darkness of a war, she was torn from the world she wanted to live in and quickly began losing faith in the structures around her, as more and more people were hurting and dying around her at every turn, no matter her efforts to heal them. She couldn't handle the weight of it all, and began thinking in terms of the Greater Good: what was a few innocents dying, if it helped end the greater war? Based on her constant visions of a better, more peaceful life for the citizens of the galaxy, her dissatisfaction with authority and inward-turning mindset, and her self-destruction through the sacrifice emblematic of Doom, I deem Barriss Offee the Derse-Dreaming Seer of Life!
Ahsoka has always been the underdog, the trainee, learning and growing under the tutelage of master after master. The Jedi as a whole, then Anakin & Obi-Wan as individuals, and everywhere she goes she picks up more and more things to learn and incorporate into her own being. Guided along the paths laid out by her teachers, it took Ahsoka a long time to break away, to try her hand at picking and choosing what she wanted to learn and where she wanted to take it, but she got there in the end, turning the great power of her own person to the ends she wanted, and guiding others along to their own paths as well. Based on her life being defined by tutelage and guidance, inheriting her views and her goals, her adaptability to outside change and being content in greater systems, and how a major step in her progression involved learning to turn her identity and passion to her own decisions and morals, I deem Ahsoka Tano the Prospit-Dreaming Heir of Heart!
[Barris's classpect came easily to me, it seemed so obvious once I got into her mindset as told by the various fics that explore it more than the show did, although it fits her canon characterization as well. Plus, you can't tell me the Seer robes don't fit her aesthetic. Ahsoka's took a lot longer, as for all she's one of the main characters her ideals are remarkably fluid at first glance, which ended up actually being the key to it: her ideals *are* fluid, because her identity and what she does with it are all guided by others at first, the way Heirs tend to be. Also, this means she matches everything but dreaming moon with our lovely Hal Strider, or at least the classpect I will die on a hill for him :p. It seems strangely fitting.]
[This shit is so helpful for writing these characters I swear to god. It's the Key to Characterization. Well not really but it gives really good ideas. You can tell when you're satisfied with something when it just *clicks* and I finally got there with Ahsoka a month after I first thought of Barris's]
